Tuells, José, Parra Grande, Mónica, Santos-Calle, Francisco J., Montagud, Ana C., Egoavil, Cecilia, García-Rivera, Celia, Caballero, Pablo, Gabaldón Bravo, Eva María, Rodríguez-Díaz, Juan Carlos, Hurtado-Sánchez, José Antonio
Detection of Neutralizing Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 Post-Vaccination in Health Care Workers of a Large Tertiary Hospital in Spain by Using a Rapid Test LFIC and sVNT-ELISA
Tuells J, Parra-Grande M, Santos-Calle FJ, Montagud AC, Egoavil CM, García-Rivera C, Caballero P, Gabaldón-Bravo EM, Rodríguez-Diaz JC, Hurtado-Sánchez JA. Detection of Neutralizing Antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 Post-Vaccination in Health Care Workers of a Large Tertiary Hospital in Spain by Using a Rapid Test LFIC and sVNT-ELISA. Vaccines. 2022; 10(4):510. https://doi.org/10.3390/vaccines10040510
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/10045/122408
DOI: 10.3390/vaccines10040510
ISSN: 2076-393X
Abstract: 
The presence of neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) against SARS-CoV-2 represent a surrogate marker of immunologic protection in populations at high risk of infection such as healthcare workers caring for hospitalized patients with COVID-19. As recommended by CDC and the European CDC, the use of rapid diagnostic tests during population-based evaluations offers an opportunity to identify individuals with serologic evidence of natural infection or who have undergone vaccination. We carried out a cross-sectional study to assess the presence of neutralizing antibodies against SARS-CoV-2 among medical providers at an intensive care unit of a large referral hospital in Alicante, Spain. In addition, we tested for the presence of neutralizing antibodies compared to serum of uninfected individuals from a Biobank. We were also interested in evaluating the use of a rapid lateral flow immunochromatography (LFIC) test against a surrogate ELISA viral neutralization test (sVNT). This rapid test demonstrated a specificity of 1.000 95% CI (0.91–1.00) and the sensitivity of 0.987 95% CI (0.93–1.00). The negative predictive value was 95%. After six months, this rapid test demonstrated that those immunized with two doses of BioNTech/Pfizer vaccine, maintained optimal levels of neutralizing antibodies. We concluded that all Health Care Workers develop NAbs and the use of this rapid immunochromatographic test represents a potential tool to be used in population-based studies to detect serological antibody responses to vaccination. Vaccination policies could benefit from this tool to assess additional doses of vaccine or boosters among high-risk populations.
Keywords:Neutralizing antibodies, COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, Serological test, Immunoassay, Lateral flow assay, Lateral flow immunochromatography, Sensitivity and specificity
MDPI
info:eu-repo/semantics/article